Trump: Substantial semiconductor tariff coming 'very shortly', Apple could be exempt

The US President sent out a warning about semiconductor tariffs during a dinner at the White House on Thursday, where he hosted a high-powered group of tech executives.

The president has been vocal about wanting to see substantial domestic investment from big tech companies. Trump said that he would soon impose “fairly substantial” tariffs on semiconductor imports, but noted that companies relocating their manufacturing to the US could see their products exempted from the next levy.

“We’ll be putting a tariff very shortly. You probably are hearing we’ll be putting a fairly substantial tariff," the president said, adding that it concerns companies that do not shift production to the US.

“We’ll be putting tariffs on companies that aren’t coming in,” Trump said. He also mentioned the Apple CEO by name, saying that, regarding the new levies, "Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape."

New tariffs for semiconductor imports

In August, the US President already talked about imposing a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports during an event with Apple CEO Tim Cook. The tech giant pledged to make an additional $100 billion (€85.7bn) investment in domestic manufacturing at the time, on top of a previously approved $500bn (€428.5bn).

During the dinner at the White House on Thursday, the likes of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook found themselves as the centre of attention when Trump asked guests around the table how much they were investing in the country.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, who sat to Trump's right, said $600bn (€514.2bn), Apple's Tim Cook quoted the same and Google's Sundar Pichai promised $250bn (€214.2bn).

“What about Microsoft?” Trump said. “That's a big number.”

CEO Satya Nadella said it was up to $80bn (€68.6bn) per year.

“Good,” Trump responded. “Very good.”

Notably absent from the guest list was Elon Musk. Once a close ally of Trump who was tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.

At the table instead was one of Musk's rivals in artificial intelligence, Sam Altman of OpenAI.